Pro Cycling Discussion Thread 2015

Jonny69 said:
Back on topic, is it common to start the tour with a time trial? Or am I confusing it with the Vuelta when it's normally near the end?
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It's often started with a short TT.
You dont want a long TT where there are big time gaps between the main GC riders right from the start but you want a few seconds between each rider to determine who gets to wear the yellow jersey.
If you just started with 2-3 sprint stages most of the riders would be on the same time and the yellow jersey would need to be worked out by adding up each rider's position from each of the stages and it would be confusing.

There is usually 2 other TTs during the course of the race with one near the end. Sometimes only 1 and a prologue though.
 
Lars boom been caught with low cortisol levels... Another blight on Astana although obviously not an infringement itself, doesn't exactly bode well!
 
SoliD said:
Lars boom been caught with low cortisol levels... Another blight on Astana although obviously not an infringement itself, doesn't exactly bode well!
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As someone with only a slightly more than casual interest in cycling at the moment Astana seem to be a bit of a disgrace. If they're going to try and retain any credibility in the peleton (although that might already be too late) then surely they've got to start one rider down or effectively admit that they're not all that bothered about being drug free? Accepted that low cortisol levels isn't proof of doping but it is indicative to the limited extent that I understand it and it might be tarring them all with the same brush but it's not as if Astana riders don't have previous in this area.
 
semi-pro waster said:
As someone with only a slightly more than casual interest in cycling at the moment Astana seem to be a bit of a disgrace. If they're going to try and retain any credibility in the peleton (although that might already be too late) then surely they've got to start one rider down or effectively admit that they're not all that bothered about being drug free? Accepted that low cortisol levels isn't proof of doping but it is indicative to the limited extent that I understand it and it might be tarring them all with the same brush but it's not as if Astana riders don't have previous in this area.
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So as I understand it, low cortisol levels are indicative that some event has caused natural production to drop. One explanation could be the use of Cortosone, or it could be a natural reaction to a medicine. I suppose the difficulty is that from a rider's perspective Cortosone is incredibly useful in terms of prep. It reduces body fat and dulls pain.

I wouldn't be surprised if more than one rider used it to help them get ready.
 
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